I always wondered if a cutlass could have been ordered from the factory as a column shift with bucket seats?

 

Yes.

 

I'm sure some people will kill you for asking that. IIRC buckets was standard on 442 & Cutlass Supreme but the console was optional. If you didn't opt for the option and had an automatic you got buckets w a column shift. A bench was a no cost option.

 

Bucket seats standard on Supreme coupes 70-72

Pat

 

I've seen a blue 70 or 71 Cutlass with bucket seats and a column shift, automatic transmission, it's the only one I've ever seen like that. It's on Long Island and been for sale for a long time, but it's been a couple of years so maybe it's been sold.

 

My Rallye 350 was ordered with buckets & column shift as per the window sticker. I've seen a few other cutlasses like this over the years.

 

Blake is that the one that was around the Copiague area?

 

Yes. It was a medium blue that was faded.

 

This is no mystery. Bucket seats (whether standard as in the 442 or optionally ordered on lesser Cutlii) did NOT include the console or floor shifter. You had to pay extra for RPO D55 to get that. You could even get bucket seats with a column-shifted three speed manual trans - this was the base configuration for the Cutlass convertible, for example. People who were not around in the 1960s for some reason have a hard time understanding that ordering a car was very much a piece-by-piece process. Most cars did not have the limited "packages" that manufacturers use today. By checking the right boxes on the order sheet, you could pretty much configure a car any way you wanted within the parameters of available equipment. Today, not so much. For example, I was looking at new Chevy trucks. I can't get keyless entry unless I pony up serious money for the "package" that includes the touch screen on the dash. For this reason I'll just finish building the 86 truck I have.

 

That car was for sale for ages. It was pretty nice when it first went up for sale but the last time i saw it (with the for sale signs still on it) maybe two years ago the driver's side rocker was just gone.

 

 

I'm assuming it was not a Cutlass.

 

 

You were told wrong. I am aware of one such factory console without shifter used by Olds, but never in a Cutlass. The 1967 Delta Custom came with bucket seats and a console as base equipment. One available drivetrain option was the "Starfire" 375 HP 425 with a column shifted three speed manual trans (yeah, you can probably count the number of those built on your fingers). When this configuration was ordered, the console (which was the 67-69 Cutlass AT console) used a blank plate over the metal panel where the shifter normally goes. This is fully documented in the B-body Product Information Manual (aka the Assembly Manual). There is no such option shown for the 1971-72 A-body cars in the PIMs for those cars.

Buick more commonly installed consoles without shifters, such as this "starship" console used in the 1965 Wildcats.